Time-of-day announcing system



Sept. 11, 1945.

V TIME-OF-DAY ANNOUNCING SYSTEM Filed Aug. 21, 1943 sou/9c: or PRECISION/a0- msauzlvcr R. F. MASSONNEAU 2,384,634

sauna or PRECISION /aornsausncr INVENTOR R E MASSONNEAU ATTORNEYPatented Sept. 11, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT O ICE-g;

TEME-OF-DAY ANNOUNCING SYSTEM Robert F. Massonneau, Searsdale, N.'Yl',assignmto Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., acorporation of New York application August .21, 1943, Serial N o.499,578

7 Claims. (01.170-6) This invention relates to equipment forautomatically announcing the tim of day and has for its object toprevent faults in the announcements made by such equipment.

One form of equipment for announcing the time of day is disclosed inPatent No. 2,364,147, granted to E. H. Jones, Dec. 5, 1944. Thisequipment employs film records of the elements making up theannouncements and these films are mounted over openings in an opaquedrum or on a transparent drum. Individual scanning devices are arrangedin registration with the film records, the scanning devices being movedin accordance with the time of dayf The drum is constantly in motion,being driven by a motor under the control of a source of precisionfrequency. This motor also drives a set of cams which control the,connection of the scanning devices to the outgoing circuit.

In order to insure uninterrupted service, and reliable time keeping, twounits of the announcing equipment are provided and are operatedsimultaneously although only one unit is connected to the outgoingcircuit at a time together with means to indicate when one unitfails tokeep accurate time as shown by a failure of the two units to keep step.Another source'of improper announcements would be the breakdown of anyelement of the equipment whereby part of the announcement would fail toreach the outgoing circuit.

In accordance with the present invention means is provided, operated byeach announcing equipment to sound an alarm if faults exist in theequipment.

More specifically means is provided under the joint control of saidunits to sound an alarm if the units get out of step. In addition, saidalarm is also operated if the effective unit fails to produce anyelement of the announcement.

The invention will be more clearly understood from a consideration ofthe following description, read in connection with the drawing whichshows schematically two announcing machines and the alarm control meansof the resent invention.

The announcing machine at the top of the sheet will be brieflydescribed. For a detailed description and a showing of the mechanicalstructure, reference may be made to the above-identified Jones patent.

As spoken by the machine shown, the time of clay announcement is made upof a preamble, the hour, minute and fractional minute announcements andatime tone. The minute announcement is made from one film for the firstnineteen minutes of each hour and from two films for sub: sequentminutes, the tens digit being spoken by the first film and the unitsdigit by the second film. The fractional minutes are stated as. tensofseconds and two scanning devices are provided, one in advance of theother, the latter used during the time when only one minute film isfunctioning.

The device for scanning the preamble film is shown at I00, the hourscanner at I03, the primary minute scanner at I02, the secondary minutescanner at IN and the two seconds scanners at I04 and, I05. Thesescanner are arranged around the film bearing drum I00 and are moved inaccordance with the time of day bymeans of cams (not shown) driven by amotor I I 6 which is operated by a source of commercial current.

The drum I00 is operated by a motor I0! driven bye. precision source of-cycle frequency and is, constantly in motion; Motor I01 also operates aset of cams I08 to II 4, which areso geared to the drive as to make onerevolution for the two revolutions of the drum which are necessary for acomplet announcement. Following each announcement, cam I I4 closes acircuit from source I50 of alternating current, over the contact of camI14 through the Winding of motor H6 and back to source I59. Motor IIBstarts to rotate, and as soon as the motor starts to move, asupplementary circuit is closed for the motor winding at cam I I5,thereby causing the motor to complete one revolution. As shown in theaboveidentified Jones patent thisadvances the seconds scanner intoposition opposite the next tensecond announcement and also advances thedriving shafts for the other scanners so that they will be advanced atthe proper time intervals.

At the beginning of the announcement, cam I08 closes its contact,operating relay H8 which connects scanning device I 00 to the amplifierI29, starting the preamble. When the preamble is finished, cam I09 comesinto position to close its contact, operating relay II9 to render thehours scanner I03 effective. Subsequently, cam IIO operates relay I20 toconnect the primary minutes scanner I02 to the amplifier I29. The efiectof cams III, H2 and H3 depends on the operated or non-operated conditionof contacts I25 to I21. These contacts are operated by an auxiliary camcarried by the cam which drives the rimary minutes scanning device.During the first nineteen minutes of each hour these contacts are movedto the alternate position, in which contact i25 is closed and contactsI26 and I21 are opened. During the balance of thehour the contacts areas shown. Therefore, during the first nineteen minutes of the hour,following the primary minutes announcement, cam II is effective tooperate relay I22 and connect the early seconds scanning device I04 tothe amplifier I29. During the remainder of the hour cam I I I isineffective, while cam H3 operates relay I23 to connect the secondaryminutes scanner IN to the amplifier I29, after which cam II2 operatesrelay I2I to connect the late seconds scanner I05 to the amplifier.After the seconds announcement, cam I08 again closes the circuit ofrelay I I8 to transmit the time tone. Each of the relays H8 and I23closes an obvious circuit for relay I28.

The announcing machine shown at the bottom of the figure is identicalwith that described. As stated above, the two machines are runsimultaneously but only one machine is'connected with the outgoingcircuit I58. Which machine is to be effective is determined by theposition of key I60. With key I60 in the position shown relay I6I is notenergized and relay I3I is operated, connecting the output of amplifierI29- to theoutgoing trunk I58.

Relay I3I also prepares a circuit from battery through the winding ofrelay I54, outer left contacts of relay I-3I to the left contacts ofrelay I28. Each time that relay I28 operates, thecircuit of relay I54 isextended to ground.

Across the talking conductors of trunk I58 is connected the primarywinding of transformer I51, the secondary of which is connected to theinput circuit of a rectifier-amplifier tube I56. The output of tube I56is connected to the input of the trigger tube I55. The circuits of thesetubes are-so arranged that each time that speech current reaches theoutgoing trunk, tube I55 becomes conducting and prepares a circuit forrelay I52. Since relay I54-is operated each time that one of thescanning devices is connected to the amplifier, each operation of relayI54 should coincide with the flashing of tube I55 thereby completing acircuit from the plate of tube I55, through the right winding of relayI52, right contacts of relay I54 to the cathode of tube I55; foroperating relay I52. Each time that relay I54 operates, it also closes acircuit for relay I53, which, being slow to release remains operated foran interval following the release of relay I 54 and. provides a lockingcircuit for relay I52 from battery through the left winding and contactsof relay I52 and the left contacts of relay I53 toground.

Between the phrases of an announcement, relay I54- releases, followedafter a short interval by relay I53 and relay I52.

If, during any portion of an announcement, no speech current passes tothe outgoing trunk, relay I52 is not operated and, during the intervalbetween the release of relay I54 and therelease of relay I53, a circuitis closed from ground over the back contact of relay I54, right frontcontact of relay I53, backcontact of relay I52, normal contacts andwinding ofrelay I50 to battery. Relay I50 operates, looks over its rightalternate contacts and the normal contactsof key I 51 to ground and atits left contacts closes a circuit for'an alarm.

The attendant, in response to the alarm, may move key I50 to itsalternate position, operating relay I 6|, releasing relay I3-I- andoperating'relay 23 l; Relay 23I connects amplifier 229 and theassociated announcing machine to the outgoing trunk I58; It also placesrelay I54 under the control of relay 228 and the relays 2I8 to 223 ofthe machine which is now effective. Key I5I permits the release of relayI and the silencing of the alarm while the attendant finds the trouble.

As mentioned above, relay I28 operates each time that one of the relaysIIB to I23 operates, while relay 228 operates each time that one of therelays 2I8 to 223 operates. If the two announcing machines are operatingin step, relays I28 and 228 are operated at the same time. However, ifthe speeds of the machines differ enough to permit relay I28 to releasewhile relay 228 is operated, or vice versa, indicating that one of themachines is not keeping time, a circuit is closed from ground over theback contact of one relay and the front contact of the other relay tobattery through the normal contacts and winding ofrelay I50. Relay I50operates, locks to ground under the control of key I5I and closes thealarm circuit. Means is provided, as set forth in the above-identifiedJones patent, to return the two announcing machines into step.

It is apparent from the foregoing description, that any fault whichmight lead to a defective time announcement causes an alarm to besoundedv so that the fault may be corrected.

It is also clear that, using well-known switching apparatus indicated atI62, relay IBI could be actuated by the operation of alarm relay I50 toshift the load automatically to the machine not in use whenever a faultoccurs.

What is claimed is:

1. In a time-of-day announcing system, two identical announcing machinesdriven at the same speed, each machine having records of the elements ofa time-of-day announcement, a plurality ofv reproducers cooperatingrespectively with said records, means for successively rendering saidreproducers effective, and means under the control of saidlast-mentioned means for detecting faults in the operation of saidmachines individually or with respect to each other, and means underthe, control of said detecting means for sounding an alarm.

2. In a time-of-day announcing system, two identical announcing machinesdriven at the same speed, each machine having records of the elements ofatime-of-day announcement, a plurality ofreproducers cooperatingrespectively with said records, means for successively rendering saidreproducers effective, and means under the control of saidlast-mentioned means for detecting faults in the operation of saidmachines individually or with respect to each other, an outgoing line,means for normally connecting the, reproducers of one of said machinesto said outgoing, line, and, means under the control of said detectingmeans-for disconnecting said outgoing line from said one machine andconnecting it to saidother machine.

3. In atime-of-day announcing system, an announcing machine havingrecords of a preliminary announcementand of the hour, minute andfractiona-lminutedivisions of the time of day, a plurality ofreproducerscooperating respectively with said records, a speech output detector, aseries of relaysfor successively rendering saidreproducers effective andfor associating them in succession with said speech detector, meansunder thecontrol of each of said relays for preparing analarm circuitand means under the controlof'said speech detector for disabling saidalarm circuit.

4 Ina time-of-day announcing system, two identical-announcing machines,eachof said machines having records of the preliminary announcement andof the hour, minute and fractional minute divisions of the time of day,a plurality of reproducers cooperating respectively with said records, aseries of relays for successively rendering said reproducers effectiveand a supplementary relay operated by each of said series of relays, aspeech detector, means for connecting said speech detector to one ofsaid announcing machines, an alarm device and means under the control ofthe supplementary relay belonging to said one announcing machine forrendering said speech detector and the supplementary relay belonging tosaid other announcing machine efiective to operate said alarm device.

5. In a time-of-day announcing system, an announcing machine comprisingrecords of a preliminary announcement, and of the hour, minute andfractional minute divisions of the time of day and a plurality ofreproducers each cooperating with one of said records, a connector relayfor each of said reproducers, a load circuit, means for successivelyoperating said connector relays to connect said reproducers to said loadcircuit, speech detecting means permanently connected with said loadcircuit, and means under the control of each of said connector relaysfor rendering said speech detecting means efiective only while areproducer is connected with said load circuit.

6. In a time-of-day announcing system, an announcing machine comprisingrecords of a preliminary announcement, and of the hour, minute andfractional minute divisions of the time of day and a plurality ofreproducers each cooperating with one of said records, a connector relayfor each of said reproducers, a load circuit, means for successivelyoperating said connector relays to connect said reproducers to said loadcircuit, speech detecting means permanently connected with said loadcircuit, and means under the control of each of said connector relaysfor rendering said speech detecting means effective each time that areproducer is connected with said load circuit.

7. In a time-of-day announcing system, an announcing machine comprisingrecord of a preiiminary announcement, and of the hour, minute andfractional minute divisions of the time of day and a plurality ofreproducers each cooperating with one of said records, a connector relayfor each of said reproducers, a load circuit, means for successivelyoperating said connector relays to connect said reproducers to said loadcircuit, speech detecting means permanently connected with said loadcircuit, a speech indicatingrelay, means under the control of each ofsaid connector relays for associating said speech indicating relay withsaid speech detecting means, and means under the control of said speechindicating relay for sounding an alarm.

ROBERT F. MASSONNEAU.

